County hears state briefing on opioid settlement funds as supervisors vote to indefinitely postpone proposed opioid task force

Michelle Hayes, director of Substance Use Initiatives and a policy adviser at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, told the Manitowoc County Board on Tuesday that federal litigation settlements tied to prescription opioids provide money that must be used to abate the opioid epidemic and related harms.

Hayes said Wisconsin expects to receive hundreds of millions of dollars through the national opioid litigation and described how the state and local governments must follow Exhibit E of the settlement agreements and state law (2021 Wisconsin Act 57) when they spend the money. “Dollars only come to us because of lives that have been lost,” Hayes said. She reminded officials that the state’s share is distributed and overseen by DHS, and that 70% of settlement dollars go directly to participating counties and municipalities.

The presentation mattered because the board considered a resolution to create a county opioid task force to recommend how the county should use its settlement money and to provide public oversight. Supporters said the panel would increase transparency and coordinate county departments and community partners; opponents said the county already has effective, functioning oversight through the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council and human services structures and that a task force would duplicate work.

Why it matters: Several speakers with roles in the criminal justice and recovery systems told the board the county’s existing drug court, human services and recovery-home network have produced measurable results and should continue to be prioritized for funding. Judges, recovery-home operators and people in recovery said shifting or adding oversight could disrupt programs that currently place people into treatment and sober living.

What officials heard and debated

Hayes outlined allowable uses under Exhibit E — prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery — and described state reporting obligations. She said DHS runs a Naloxone Direct program that combines settlement funds with federal SAMHSA grants to buy naloxone for local providers. According to Hayes, recent awards to Manitowoc County included 24 cases to the Manitowoc County Human Services Department (288 kits, about 576 doses), 12 cases to the Manitowoc County Health Department (144 kits, about 288 doses) and 50 cases to Lighthouse Recovery (600 kits, about 1,200 doses). Hayes also said the state awarded Manitowoc County $68,757 from the state share to help cover room-and-board for Medicaid recipients in residential substance use treatment, and that Lighthouse Recovery received nearly $200,000 in a capital grant to expand housing for pregnant and postpartum women.

Public comment: More than a dozen people told the board that the county already has a coordinated system of care. Mark Rohr, a Manitowoc County circuit judge, said: “We do not need an opiate task force.” Judge Bob Duane said drug court and related services already reduce crime and cost and that “not treating addiction is much more expensive.” Representatives from recovery homes and residents in recovery described how human services, drug court and sober living helped them regain custody of children, find employment and rejoin their communities. Dina Grunvold, a medical forensic nurse who works in multiple counties, said Manitowoc’s Drug Endangered Children program is the strongest she has seen and warned children would be missed without existing partnerships.

Board debate and outcome

Board members split roughly along two lines: those who said formal advisory oversight was needed to ensure the settlement dollars were being tracked and targeted, and those who warned that a new task force would duplicate existing, functioning structures and could destabilize funding for established programs. Several supervisors said they had difficulty locating clear, itemized documentation showing precisely how prior years’ settlement dollars were spent and called for greater transparency. Other supervisors and many public speakers said the county should instead ensure existing boards and the human services department receive adequate funding.

The board first entertained a motion to approve the resolution creating an opioid task force; that motion was made and seconded. After extended public comment and debate, a motion to postpone the resolution indefinitely passed on a roll call, 11–10. The chair explained that a vote to postpone indefinitely functionally ends discussion and means no further vote on the resolution would occur.

Votes at a glance

- Motion to postpone indefinitely the resolution creating a Manitowoc County opioid task force: passed 11–10 (motion carried). The procedural motion effectively removed the resolution from further consideration.

Context and next steps

Board members and public speakers repeatedly urged improved transparency about prior settlement spending and asked the county to produce itemized accounting statements. Hayes said annual county reports on settlement spending are public records and are submitted to Wisconsin DOJ and the Joint Committee on Finance, and she directed supervisors and staff to Wisconsin Counties Association resources and the DHS quarterly reports for statewide spending on opioid settlement funds.

The county did not allocate new opioid settlement money or make programmatic changes as part of the vote. Supervisors who asked for more documentation said they would continue to press for clearer accounting and invited community partners to participate in future discussions about funding priorities.

Ending note

The meeting brought county officials, judges, treatment providers and people in recovery into a public forum about a narrow question — how best to oversee and target opioid‑settlement dollars — and ended with a close vote to stop creation of a new advisory body. Several supervisors said they still want clearer, itemized information about past settlement spending before making future budget decisions.